Human remains, belongings found from EgyptAir crash at sea Egypt said on Friday its navy had found human remains, wreckage and the personal belongings of passengers floating in the Mediterranean, the first confirmation that an EgyptAir jet with 66 people on board had plunged into the sea. Unconfirmed reports about flight data from the Airbus plane that disappeared while flying from Paris to Cairo in the early hours of Thursday local time pointed to several problems that its veteran pilot may have struggled with minutes before the crash.
« The Egyptian navy was able to retrieve more debris from the plane, some of the passengers’ belongings, human remains, and plane seats, » the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement.President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered condolences for those on board.The navy was searching an area about 290 km (180 miles) north of Alexandria, just south of where the signal from the plane was lost early on Thursday.
There was no sign of the bulk of the wreckage, or of a location signal from the « black box » flight recorders that are likely to provide the best clues to the cause of the crash.
EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Moslem told state television that the radius of the search zone was 40 miles, giving an area of 5,000 square miles, but said it may be expanded. A European satellite spotted a 2 km-long oil slick in the Mediterranean, about 40 km southeast of the aircraft’s last known position, the European Space Agency said.Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any cause for the crash. The aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure, but offered no evidence.
DATA INDICATES SMOKE ALERTS Although early suspicion centered on Islamist militants who blew up another airliner over Egypt seven months ago, no group had claimed responsibility more than 36 hours after the disappearance of flight MS804, an Airbus A320.
CNN reported on Friday that flight data, from an automatic system called the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), said smoke alerts were triggered aboard the EgyptAir jet shortly before it crashed.ACARS routinely downloads flight data to the airline operating the aircraft.Two U.S. officials told Reuters they could not confirm CNN’s report. But they said an electronic sensor system had detected some kind of disturbance outside the jet around the time investigators believe it began falling from cruising altitude.
One of the officials said the disturbance outside the aircraft may have been caused by its sudden and rapid breakup, but it also could have been generated by some kind of mechanical fault or accident or a possible explosion or attack.
The officials asked for anonymity when speaking about the still-evolving investigation.
A screen grab of the flight data transmitted by ACARS to operators on the ground, published on the website of the aviation journal AVHerald.com, indicated failures in the jet’s flight control system and alerts related to smoke in a lavatory and the avionics system, minutes before the crash.The screen grab provided on the website showed only very terse messages sent from the aircraft, such as « SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE, » « AVIONICS SMOKE » and « F/CTRL SEC 3 FAULT. » The U.S. officials said they could not confirm the authenticity the data, however, and EgyptAir officials could not be reached for immediate comment.
Jihadists have been fighting Egypt’s government since Sisi toppled an elected Islamist leader in 2013. In October, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian airliner that exploded after taking off from an Egyptian tourist resort. Russian investigators blamed a bomb smuggled on board.
That crash devastated Egypt’s tourist industry, one of the main sources of foreign exchange for a country of 80 million people, and another similar attack would crush hopes of it recovering.
The plane vanished just as it was moving from Greek to Egyptian airspace control. Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said it had swerved radically and plunged from 37,000 feet to 15,000 before vanishing from Greek radar screens.
Officials from a number of U.S. agencies told Reuters that a U.S. review of satellite imagery so far had not produced any signs of an explosion. They said the United States had not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew.
Three French investigators and a technical expert from Airbus arrived in Cairo early on Friday, airport sources said.Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, played down comments from U.S. figures including likely presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that terrorism was the most likely cause.
« At this point, we still can’t corroborate the theory that terrorism brought it down or there was some structural problem with the plane, » Schiff told CNN. »Certainly, the backdrop is suggestive of terrorism in the sense that we have the Russian plane in Sharm el-Sheikh and we have the aspiration we’ve seen time and time again, not only of ISIL (Islamic State) now but of AQAP (al Qaeda), still very potent and still very determined to bring down aircraft.
« But the reality is, we don’t have hard evidence that this was terrorism yet. » FAMILY OF PILOTS Hardline Islamists have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years.
Khaled al-Gameel, head of crew at EgyptAir, said the pilot, Mahamed Saeed Ali Shouqair, had 15 years’ experience and was in charge of training and mentoring younger pilots. »He comes from a pilot family; his uncle was a high-ranking pilot at EgyptAir and his cousin is also a pilot, » Gameel said.
« He was very popular and was known for taking it upon himself to settle disputes any two colleagues were having. » A Facebook page that appeared to be Shouqair’s included criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, repostings of articles supporting President Sisi and pictures of Shouqair wearing aviator sunglasses. Two former senior crash investigators said the list of possible causes remained wide open and noted there had been cases where deliberate action had been suspected wrongly.
In 1996, a terrorism probe was launched after a TWA jumbo jet crashed off Long Island, New York, on the east coast of the United States, but investigators later found it had probably been brought down by a fuel tank explosion.The EgyptAir plane that crashed Thursday was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two infants, and 10 crew.They included 30 Egyptian and 15 French nationals, along with citizens of 10 other countries. The aircraft had made scheduled flights to Tunisia and Eritrea on Wednesday before arriving in Paris from Cairo.
Libya’s Haftar says won’t work with unity govt until militias disbanded It would be « unthinkable » for eastern Libyan forces to join a U.N.-backed unity government until militias aligned to it have been disbanded, General Khalifa Haftar, who heads up troops in the east, said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
A December unity deal was meant to end the divide between rival governments in the capital Tripoli and the east who have vied for control over the country and its oil resources since 2014, backed by competing factions, who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi five years ago.
But in an ominous early sign of a possible new showdown, eastern and western factions have sent separate armoured columns towards Gaddafi’s home town Sirte, now in the hands of fighters from Islamic State.
Western powers see Fayaz Seraj, the head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), as the best hope of unifying political and armed factions to take on Islamic State. The government arrived in Tripoli in late March and is still trying to establish its authority.
He urged the east last week to join a unified military command centre to coordinate efforts against Islamic State and asked major powers to ease a United Nations Security Council arms embargo for his administration.
« Firstly, We have no links with Mr Seraj and the Presidential Council which he leads is not recognised by the parliament (in the east), » Haftar told i-Tele news channel in an interview in Libya.
« Secondly, on this unified command centre, I would like to stress that Mr Seraj relies on militia and we refuse them. An army cannot unify with militias so they must be dismantled. It’s unthinkable to work with these armed factions. » Haftar leads the Libyan National Army (LNA), but his role in any national military force as a possible defence minister or army chief has become one of the most divisive problems in unifying the two sides.
For two years Haftar has been waging a campaign, primarily in Benghazi, the biggest city of the east, against Islamist militants and other former rebels who view him as an Egyptian-backed relic of the old regime with presidential ambitions.
« Daesh does not have the capacity to face the Libyan armed forces, but the battle could take time, » Haftar said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
« If the international community supports us, and I ask it to do so by lifting the embargo on weapons, then we could eliminate Daesh in Libya definitively and quickly, » he said. Islamic State gained control over Sirte last year and has built up its most important base outside Syria and Iraq in the Libyan coastal city. However, it has struggled to hold on to territory elsewhere in Libya.
Hezbollah vows stronger presence in Syria after commander’s death Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah on Friday vowed to strengthen its presence in wartorn Syria and send more leaders to the conflict, a week after its top military commander there was killed.The death of Mustafa Badreddine, who Hezbollah said was killed near Damascus by shellfire from Sunni Islamist rebels, was one of the biggest blows yet to the Iranian-backed group’s leadership.
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful political and military group, has provided crucial support to the Syrian army, along with Iranian forces and the Russian air force. The group is estimated to have lost around 1,200 fighters in Syria’s five-year-old conflict.
« No death of any of our leaders has driven us from the battle. This precious blood will push us to a larger, stronger and more sophisticated presence, » leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the group’s Al Manar television.
« We are staying in Syria. More leaders will go to Syria than the number that were there before. We will be present in different forms as well, » he said without elaborating.
« We will complete this battle. » Nasrallah spoke on a big screen, projected live in a hall in southern Beirut as part of a ceremony honouring Badreddine a week after his death. A military band dressed in white marched past the screen shortly before Nasrallah spoke, and men in fatigues paraded with yellow Hezbollah flags.
IRANIAN COMMANDERS KILLED Nasrallah said Badreddine had been involved in recent weeks in the planning of an offensive to capture territory from rebels southeast of Damascus. Syrian government forces and Hezbollah fighters seized that area on Thursday, taking a substantial amount of territory from insurgents.
Badreddine directed Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria, insisting on basing himself in the country, and had been a top commander since the 1990s, responsible for breaking up Israeli spy networks and helping develop the group’s media apparatus, Nasrallah said.
He reiterated a Hezbollah statement that Badreddine was killed by insurgent shellfire, and not by an Israeli attack, following speculation after one Hezbollah figure initially blamed Israel. But he warned that Hezbollah would retaliate if Israel targeted « any of our fighters ».
At least four prominent figures in Hezbollah have been killed in Syria since January 2015. A number of high-ranking Iranian officers have also been killed, either fighting Syrian insurgents or in Israeli attacks.
Hezbollah has said it sees the Syrian war as an existential battle against Sunni extremists. Nasrallah said the loss of commanders was not weakening the group.Badreddine « is not the first martyr to die in this way nor will he be the last, » he said. »We have a generation of leaders » ready to fill the void left by those killed, he said.
Russia urges joint strikes on Syria rebels but U.S. reacts coolly Russia has proposed to the U.S.-led coalition that they stage joint air strikes on Syrian rebels, including militant Islamist group Nusra Front, who are not observing a ceasefire, but the United States responded coolly on Friday.
Such action would begin as of May 25 and be coordinated with the Syrian government, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a Defence Ministry meeting broadcast on state television, adding Moscow reserved the right to stage strikes unilaterally.
He said joint air strikes should also target convoys carrying weapons and ammunition crossing into Syria from Turkey.
« We believe the adoption of these measures will allow a transition to a peaceful process to be achieved in the entire territory of Syria, » he said. « Of course, these measures have been coordinated with the leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic. » Shoigu said discussions with U.S. military experts based in Jordan and other counterparts in Geneva had begun on Thursday.
But the United States made clear on Friday it had little interest in the idea, noting Russia has floated similar proposals in the past and stressing that it expected Moscow to pressure its Syrian government ally and to avoid unilateral strikes.
Washington has consistently refused to join forces with Russia in Syria ever since Moscow launched its campaign of air strikes in September last year, accusing it of acting solely to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States has called on Assad to step down.
Communication between the U.S. and Russian militaries on Syria has been limited to contacts aimed at avoiding an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing campaigns and small numbers of U.S. forces operate on the ground.
Western officials suggested that the proposal, which the Pentagon said had not been formally presented to the U.S.Defense Department, was an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to raise Russia’s profile on the international stage. « There is no agreement to conduct joint air strikes with the Russians in Syria, » said U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby. He added that the United States believed that Assad’s government was responsible for most of the violations of the fitful ceasefire that began on Feb. 27.
« We look to Russia to end such (government) violations, which includes strikes that have hit civilians and civilian facilities, » he said.
While Russia supports the Assad government, the United States and its allies support rebels trying to overthrow him in a civil war that has burned for more than five years and killed at least 250,000 people.
However, both sides oppose the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which was not included in a ceasefire deal which has failed to prevent widespread violence. A U.S. military strike killed Nusra Front’s leader, Abu Firas al-Suri, in April. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the U.S. aim remains for Russia to persuade Assad to abide by the cessation of hostilities in Syria, saying it was not the first time Russia had made such a proposal. »You’ve seen Russia show an eagerness to cooperate with us militarily. This is not something that’s new, » Schultz said.
In private, U.S. officials said the idea was a non-starter. « Don’t see it happening, » a U.S. official said, adding the U.S. military « will ensure safety of flight but nothing else. » A Western official from a coalition country also played down the proposal. »Putin has long had a strategy regarding Syria of trying to share the geopolitical stage with the United States and its allies, and his latest proposal appears to reflect that goal, » the official said.
Protesters storm Baghdad’s Green Zone again, dozens hurt Iraqi security forces opened fire on protesters who stormed into Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Friday and entered the cabinet building, drawing calls for revolt from a powerful Shi’ite Muslim cleric. Dozens of demonstrators were injured by tear gas and live fire, witnesses said. Some security personnel were stabbed, according to a military statement. Authorities could not immediately verify reports that several civilians had been killed.
The thousands of protesters included supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and people from other groups upset with the government’s failure to approve anti-corruption reforms and provide security.
The government briefly imposed a curfew on Baghdad and authorities later said order had returned after what they called rioting at the Green Zone, which houses parliament, government buildings and many foreign embassies.
« Infiltrators exploited our forces’ preoccupation with preparations for the Falluja battle to penetrate state institutions and cause chaos, » the military said, referring to a city 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad controlled by Islamic State for more than two years.
Protesters occupied the cabinet building for several hours.
Some held Iraqi flags and flashed peace signs near the insignia of the prime minister’s press office and inside a meeting room. The protesters eventually withdrew to Tahrir Square, but witnesses said security forces and unidentified gunmen opened fire there as well.A military statement said riot police were « dealing with anyone trying to damage state institutions in accordance with the law ».
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi condemned the Green Zone breach and warned against chaos and strife in a late-night televised speech, saying: « The law must take its course with every transgressor. » SECOND BREACH Sadr expressed support for what he called a « peaceful spontaneous revolt » and condemned the government for « killing its children in cold blood ».
His supporters, protesting parliament’s failure to approve a non-political cabinet, also breached the Green Zone on April 30, storming the assembly complex and attacking officials before holding a 24-hour sit-in at a nearby square.
Parliament has not convened since then, crippling government as it grapples with an economic crisis brought on by low oil prices and an Islamist insurgency that constitutes the biggest security threat to the OPEC oil producer since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The protesters on Friday added to their grievances the authorities’ failure to maintain security following a wave of bombings claimed by Islamic State this month in Baghdad which killed more than 150 people.
Sadr did not explicitly call for Friday’s demonstration, where protesters chanted: « Oh army, the country is hurt! Don’t side with the corrupt! » Iraq’s political crisis goes back to plans announced by Prime Minister Abadi in February to replace politically affiliated ministers with independent technocrats. Despite backing from the Shi’ite religious establishment, the proposal threatens to uproot a system of political patronage that makes for a public administration rife with corruption and has faced stiff resistance.
Abadi has warned the impasse was undermining Baghdad’s security and could hamper Iraq’s fight against Islamic State, which continues to control territory in the north and west.Sadr, the heir of a revered clerical dynasty, says he backs the premier’s plan and has accused other political groups of blocking the reforms to protect vested interests.
EU ministers make it easier to suspend visa-free travel amid immigration worries European Union ministers on Friday backed making it easier and faster to suspend visa waiver with third countries and said relaxing travel rules for more states was not imminent amid deepening public concern about immigration into the bloc.
The EU is in politically sensitive talks with Ankara on easier travel requirements for Turks seeking to visit Europe for up to three months and with no right to work. The 28-nation bloc is planning the concession as part of a deal whereby Turkey helps curb the influx of migrants and refugees to Europe. But some EU states are anxious about opening up to a mainly Muslim nation of 79 million people.
To assuage such concerns, the EU is beefing up a mechanism that allows it to suspend visa waiver with any of some 60 countries that have such agreements in place. The plan, endorsed by 28 EU interior ministers on Friday, enjoys backing in the European Parliament, which must sign off on it as well.
« Visa liberalisation has great advantages for the EU and third countries, » said Klaas Dijkhoff, migration minister for the Netherlands, which now holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
« Yet we need… to make sure that visa liberalisation cannot be abused. I’m pleased that we agreed today on a mechanism that makes it easier to act against abuse. » As well as Turkey, the EU is currently working on lifting visas for citizens of Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo. Countries which already enjoy such travel benefits include Japan, the United States, South Korea, Venezuela, Israel and Canada.
NO MORE VISA LIBERALISATION SOON? German interior minister, Thomas de Maziere, said the EU should not grant visa-free travel to more countries until the suspension mechanism is in place. His French colleague, Bernard Cazeneuve, said more relaxed travel rules for the four countries were not a matter « of the coming weeks and months ».
Dijkhoff said the 28 ministers agreed that the four candidates must meet all criteria given to them by the EU to enjoy visa-free travel and that, while they were capable of eventually doing so, that was not the case yet.
In proposing extending the EU visa-waiver programme to the four countries, the bloc’s executive European Commission said Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo had already fulfilled their requirements, while Turkey was due to meet them by end-June.But diplomats from EU states differ on whether that is the case, with most agreeing though that at least Georgia has done its homework in full.
Visa liberalisation for Turkey, a key puzzle in the broader migration collaboration, has now been pushed back to July or, more likely, the autumn, sources told Reuters. The new safety mechanism cuts to two months from six now the period after which a country can seek to suspend visa-waiver if it sees a sharp rise in overstays, asylum requests or readmission refusals from a non-EU state that has had travel rules relaxed.The changes would apply to the countries of Europe’s free-travel Schengen zone, which comprises most EU states and several non-EU ones, such as Norway. Britain and Ireland are not part of the Schengen area and would not be affected. Immigration is a top issue in Britain’s June 23 vote on whether to leave the EU.
Pakistan applies to join Nuclear Suppliers Group club Pakistan has made a formal application to join a club of nuclear trading nations, the foreign ministry said on Friday, a move likely to lead to a showdown in the group which has also been facing calls to induct India as a member. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a 48-nation club dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.
Pakistan’s application will add to long-running tensions with India. The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since being split amid violence at the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Diplomats quietly launched a new push last year to induct India into the club last year.
« Pakistan has the expertise, manpower, infrastructure, as well as the ability to supply NSG controlled items, goods and services for a full range of nuclear applications for peaceful uses, » Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement announcing its formal application.
The campaign for India’s membership is viewed as carrying the risk of antagonising Pakistan as well as its ally China, which could veto any application by India.
China could also insist, as a condition of India’s membership, that Pakistan also be allowed to join, a potential hard sell due to Islamabad’s development of new tactical nuclear weapons.
« Pakistan has stressed the need for NSG to adopt a non-discriminatory criteria-based approach for NSG membership of the countries that have never been party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), » Pakistan’s foreign ministry added.Neither India nor Pakistan has signed the NPT, generally seen as a prerequisite to NSG membership.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged Pakistan last October to avoid developments in its nuclear weapons programme that could increase risks and instability. Washington has been concerned about Pakistan’s development of new nuclear weapons systems, including small tactical nuclear weapons, and has been trying to persuade Islamabad to make a unilateral declaration of « restraint ». Pakistan said on Thursday it was « seriously concerned » about recent missile tests by India and said it could respond by upgrading its defences.The NSG, which was created in response to India’s first nuclear test in 1974, is expected to hold its next meeting in June.
Paris attacks suspect refuses to speak at French hearing The man prosecutors believe is the sole survivor of the Islamist group that attacked Paris last November appeared before a French investigating judge on Friday, but refused to say anything about the assault in which 130 people were killed.
Salah Abdeslam, a French national born to Moroccan-born parents in Belgium and raised there, was brought under heavily armed escort to a court in central Paris from his solitary-confinement cell in a high-security prison outside the capital.
But what was supposed to be the first proper interrogation of the 26-year-old since he was helicoptered to France from Belgium in late April was cut short after he refused to talk.
Frank Berton, his lawyer, said Abdeslam, who was captured in Brussels and extradited to France, was upset about being kept under day-and-night watch inside his cell at Fleury-Merogis prison, south of Paris.
« What I can say is he’s particularly upset by the camera surveillance in his cell, something that is illegal under the law as it stands, » Berton told reporters.
« He can’t handle being watched 24 hours a day and that’s causing a problem psychologically I believe. » Abdeslam’s refusal to speak was unexpected as his lawyer Berton had said last month he was ready to speak after transfer to France, where he was officially placed under investigation on April 27 on counts of suspected terrorism and murder.
Abdeslam is believed to be the sole survivor of Nov. 13’s attack by Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers, including his brother, for which the Islamic State militant group that controls large parts of Syria and Iraq claimed responsibility.
Investigators suspect him at least of having played a logistics role in the assault on a football stadium, several cafes and the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 rock fans died.
Abdeslam was Europe’s most wanted fugitive until his capture in Brussels on March 18 after a four-month manhunt. He had fled France by car on the night of the attacks, passing through road police checks before his name was circulated as a suspect. Lawyers representing victims of an attack in which hundreds were also injured voiced frustration but not surprise. »This just proves he’s somebody who’ll never cooperate with the justice system. We never did and never will trust him, » said lawyer Samia Maktouf.
U.S. moves to unseal Islamic State defector’s case U.S. prosecutors on Friday sought to unseal the to-date secret criminal case of an Islamic State defector after NBC News broadcast an interview with the New York man in which he spoke out against the militant Islamist group.Unsealing the case could allow the U.S. Justice Department to make public details of why the man turned against Islamic State at a time when the government is trying to combat the group’s online propaganda.
The 27-year-old man had been cooperating in investigations and had explored speaking publicly against the militant group « for some time » before agreeing to the NBC interview broadcast Thursday, prosecutors said in a letter filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The man, identified only as « Mo, » pleaded guilty under seal in November 2014 to charges including that he provided material support to Islamic State, the letter said.
U.S. authorities arranged the NBC interview after learning the network was preparing a story on Mo, who NBC said attended Columbia University, prosecutors said in the letter.
« Islamic State is not bringing Islam to the world, » Mo said during the interview. « And people need to know that. » A spokeswoman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers declined comment. Mo’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. NBC had no immediate comment. Mo is one of more than 85 people since 2014 to face U.S.charges over crimes related to Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and has claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
Prosecutors said in June 2014, Mo travelled from Brooklyn to Syria, where he enlisted with Islamic State. Once there, they said, he received military training and served as a sentry at one of its headquarters and in various administrative positions.But Mo became « disillusioned, » prosecutors said. During the NBC interview, Mo said « towards the end as things were getting more and more serious, I did see severed heads placed on spiked poles. » In November 2014, Mo escaped across the border into Turkey and found his way to a U.S. State Department outpost, prosecutors said. Once back in the United States, he was arrested and began cooperating.
Tunisian Islamists Ennahda move to separate politics, religion Tunisia’s Islamist party Ennahda will separate its political and religious work, its chief said on Friday, moving away from its tradition of political Islam. Ennahda was the first Islamist party to come to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions and it took part in the first government coalition after the overthrow of Tunisia’s autocratic leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
It won the first post-uprising election by appealing to many Tunisians who saw its Islamist identity as an antidote to the years of corruption and repression under the Ben Ali government in one of the region’s most secular nations. Free elections, a new constitution and a compromise politics between secular and Islamist parties have helped Tunisia avoid the turmoil seen in several other Arab nations.
« Ennahda has changed from an ideological movement engaged in the struggle for identity, to a protest movement against the authoritarian regime, and now to a national democratic party, » Ghannouchi told supporters at a rally. « We must keep religion far from political struggles. » Analysts said Ennahda’s reform appeared to try to distinguish itself in a region where political Islam has suffered setbacks, and also to prepare for local elections next year and presidential run in 2019.
Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that was toppled by the Egyptian army in 2013 and isolated from political activity, Ennahda was able to survive despite initial conflict with secularists with whom it eventually shared power.
« Ennahda benefited and learned from the regional changes after the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and understood well that there was no future in political Islam, » analyst Jamel Arfaoui said.
« Ennahda succeeded in shaping a new image for Islamists abroad, but the question remains will it be able to persuade people locally that it has changed. » Ennahda, formed as a movement during the Ben Ali years and with many of its leaders imprisoned or exiled during that time, has in the past struggled with internal splits between its more moderate and conservative wings.
A crisis over the murder of two opposition leaders and Ennahda’s handling of hardline conservative salafist groups eventually forced the party to step aside during its first government for a caretaker administration in 2014. Since then, Ennahda and secularists have made compromise a byword for Tunisian politics after their deal-making pulled the country out of that political confrontation, and allowed Tunisia to approve the new constitution. Tunisia President Beji Caid Essesbi welcomed the step to separate politics and religious activities, saying that Ennahda was heading in the right direction. He said the next test for Ennahda will be local elections in March 2017. « The state now respects religion and religious freedoms, contrary to the way it was in the past, » he said. « Political movements should be directed toward political competition and serve the people only. »
Kosovo group jailed for 42 years for aiding Islamic State A Kosovo court sentenced seven men to a total of 42 years in jail for recruiting on behalf of Islamic State or fighting for the group in Syria, a judge said on Friday.
The main defendant, Imam Zekeria Qazimi, was jailed for 10 years for recruiting young Kosovars to go and fight in Syria. In a 2013 YouTube video Qazimi said: « The blood of infidels is the best drink for us, » the judgment said. Five others were found guilty of « fighting with the terrorist organisation called ISIS after travelling from Pristina to Turkey and later to Syria, » the judge said.
The seventh man was found guilty of recruiting fighters for Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and fighting in Syria.
All the defendants, some chained around the ankles, looked calm as they entered the courtroom surrounded by anti-terrorist police.
The case is seen as a test for the young Balkan country as it tries to stop its people joining Islamist groups.
Police say around 300 Kosovars have joined Islamic State and more than 50 have been killed. More than 100 people in Kosovo have been arrested or are under investigation for recruiting on behalf of Islamic State or fighting in Syria and Iraq. Authorities say that so far this year no one has gone to join Islamic State in Syria or Iraq.Under a new law, Kosovo can jail its citizens for up to 15 years if they participate in foreign wars. More than 90 percent of Kosovars are Muslim, but they are mostly secular and fiercely pro-American.
Turkish parliament strips MPs of immunity in blow to Kurdish opposition Turkey’s parliament on Friday approved stripping its members of immunity from prosecution, a move likely to see the pro-Kurdish opposition sidelined, ease President Tayyip Erdogan’s path to stronger powers, and raise concern among Western allies.
Erdogan has accused the pro-Kurdish HDP, parliament’s third-biggest party, of being the political wing of militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast, and wants to see them prosecuted. The HDP denies such links and says its parliamentary presence could be all but wiped out if prosecutions go ahead.
« They will have to arrest us, take us by force. We will resort to all possible measures to challenge the decision, including taking it to the constitutional court, » the party’s co-leader Selahattin Demirtas told reporters outside parliament.
In the third and final vote of a secret ballot, 376 MPs in the 550-seat assembly backed the plan to lift MPs’ immunity, a high enough level of support to change the constitution directly without needing to hold a referendum.
Erdogan on Friday stressed his support for the bill, which will become law once approved by him and published, paving the way for the launch of judicial proceedings.
« My nation does not want to see guilty lawmakers in this country’s parliament. Above all it does not want to see those supported by the separatist terror group in parliament, » he told a crowd in the Black Sea town of Rize, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
Erdogan’s opponents say the lifting of immunity is part of a strategy to push the HDP out of parliament, strengthen the ruling AK Party, and consolidate support in the assembly for the executive presidential system he has long desired. The legislation has caused concern in Europe, which is trying to hold together a controversial deal with Turkey meant to stop illegal migration despite what many European politicians see as the country’s deteriorating record on human rights.
EUROPEAN CONCERN Responding to the decision by the Turkish parliament, which is heavily dominated by the AKP, a German government spokesman said Berlin was concerned by the increasing polarisation of Turkey’s domestic political debate.
Chancellor Angela Merkel would discuss the issue with Erdogan at a meeting in Istanbul on Monday, he said.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Twitter the immunity move was a « blow to Turkish democracy » and that « the gulf with European norms and values is widening ».HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas told Reuters this month that the lifting of immunity was likely to create more violence and stifle democratic politics.
Conflict between the state and the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and United States, is at its most intense since the 1990s. Thousands of militants and hundreds of security force members and civilians have been killed since a 2-1/2 year ceasefire collapsed in July.
Lawmakers currently enjoy immunity from prosecution. The new law will allow prosecutors to pursue members of parliament who currently face investigation: that includes 138 deputies, of whom 101 are from the HDP and main opposition CHP.
The HDP has said an overwhelming majority of its 59 deputies could be jailed, mostly for views they have expressed. Friday’s vote came a day after Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, a close Erdogan ally, emerged as the likely new AKP leader and therefore the next prime minister.Yildirim, seen as a champion of the presidential system Erdogan wants, will be the sole candidate to lead the AKP at a party congress on Sunday. Erdogan said on Turkish broadcaster ATV late on Thursday he planned to give Yildirim the mandate to form a new government that evening.
U.S. panel probing Benghazi attack to report within month -chair The U.S. House panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans will release its report on the incident in the next month, the congressman leading the inquiry told MSNBC on Friday.
Representative Trey Gowdy, who is in charge of the two-year-old investigation in the House of Representatives, told MSNBC the committee’s report would be finished and released before Republican and Democratic political parties hold conventions in July to nominate candidates for the 2016 presidential elections.
« We’re going to get the report out. It’ll be in the next month, » Gowdy told MSNBC in an interview, adding that he had wanted to finish the investigation last summer but hadn’t been able to get all the documents he needed from the administration.
« I can’t stop an investigation because an executive branch agency won’t give me documents, and we’re still owed documents, » Gowdy said, adding the report would say « what we’re missing » and which agencies hadn’t reported fully. The Republican-led panel has been criticized for allowing the investigation to drag on for so long and accused of politicizing the incident.Hillary Clinton, the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of state at the time of the attack and Republicans have accused the State Department of being slow to hand over documents it needed.
Microsoft to crack down on content promoting extremist acts With the world growing more concerned about attacks by militant groups on civilians, Microsoft Corp on Friday outlined new policies to crack down what it called « terrorist content » on some of its consumer services. In a blog post, the company said it would ban what it called « terrorist content » on some services such as gaming tool Xbox Live, the consumer version of its Outlook email service, and its consumer documents-sharing service.
But for its search engine Bing, Microsoft cited free expression and said it would remove links only when that « is required of search providers under local law. » Initially, Microsoft will rely on consumers to report objectionable content. The company also said it would fund research of a tool that scans content and flags images, audio and video.
« We will consider terrorist content to be material posted by or in support of organizations included on the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List that depicts graphic violence, encourages violent action, endorses a terrorist organization or its acts, or encourages people to join such groups, » the blog post said. The steps illustrate the tough predicament many companies face balancing public safety with individual rights.The issue came to the fore after Apple Inc. and the U.S. government clashed over whether federal authorities could force Apple to create software to unlock a phone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attacks last year.
Ultimately, the government paid a third party to unlock the phone. « The events of the past few months are a strong reminder that the Internet can be used for the worst reasons imaginable, » Microsoft said in its post.Microsoft said users can use an online form to recommend removal of content.
« Use this Web form to report content posted by or in support of a terrorist organization that depicts graphic violence, encourages violent action, endorses a terrorist organization or its acts, or encourages people to join such groups, » the instructions read.
Microsoft said it would provide information on how to counter negative content, a policy adopted by another technology giant: Facebook Inc.The social-media service this year announced a tool it calls « counter speech, » encouraging activists to counter extremist views with posts promoting tolerance. Last year, Facebook updated its guidelines to prohibit advocacy of « terrorist activity, organized criminal activity or promoting hate. » Social media site Twitter Inc suspended 125,000 accounts, most of which it believed were linked to the militant Islamic State group.
World Bank launches $500 mln insurance fund to fight pandemics The World Bank on Saturday said it was launching a $500 million, fast-disbursing insurance fund to combat deadly pandemics in poor countries, creating the world’s first insurance market for pandemic risk.
Japan has committed the first $50 million towards the facility, which will combine funding from reinsurance markets with the proceeds of a new type of World Bank-issued high-yield pandemic « catastrophe » bond, the bank said.In the event of a pandemic outbreak, the facility will release funds quickly to affected poor countries and qualified international first-responder agencies.
The genesis of the new facility was the slow international response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when it took months to muster meaningful funds for affected countries as death tolls mounted.
« The recent Ebola crisis in West Africa was a tragedy that we were simply not prepared for. It was a wake-up call to the world, » World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told a media conference call.
« We can’t change the speed of a hurricane or the magnitude of an earthquake, but we can change the trajectory of an outbreak. With enough money sent to the right place at the right time, we can save lives and protect economies, » Kim added.
The so-called Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility will initially provide up to $500 million that can be disbursed quickly to fight a pandemic, with funds released once parametric triggers are met, based on the size, severity and spread of an outbreak.
The facility was developed in conjunction with the World Health Organization and reinsurers Swiss Re and Munich Re, which are acting as insurance providers. It will include catastrophe, or cat bonds, in which purchasers would lose principal if fund flows are triggered by a pandemic outbreak, the World Bank said.
But the insurance mechanism is limited to certain classes of infectious diseases most likely to cause major outbreaks, including several types of influenza, respiratory diseases such as SARS and MERS, and other deadly viruses including Ebola and Marburg.
Kim said the types of qualifying diseases had to be limited in order to secure the insurance policy, for which the World Bank will pay premiums.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus now spreading in Latin America is not included in the insurance scheme, but Kim said funds for Zika and other diseases that could lead to pandemics would be made available through a separate cash window, which is likely to be in the $100 million range.Kim, who announced the facility at a Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in Sendai, Japan, said he expected more contributions from G7 and other donors.
He said he hoped the new facility would spur development of a market for pandemic risk, similar to that for natural catastrophe risk since the 1990s.
The bank estimated that had the facility existed in mid-2014, an initial $100 million could have been mobilized as early as July of that year to severely limit the spread and severity of the Ebola epidemic. Instead, it took three months for that scale of money to begin flowing, a period in which the number of Ebola cases increased ten-fold.The disease eventually killed more than 11,300 people and has cost at least $10 billion – more than $7 billion in international aid and some $2.8 billion in gross domestic product losses in Guinea, Libera and Sierra Leone.
U.S., Japan FX row overshadows G7 meeting; leaders eye Brexit threat The United States issued a fresh warning to Japan against competitive currency devaluation on Saturday, exposing a rift on exchange-rate policy that overshadowed a Group of 7 finance leaders gathering hosted by the Asian nation.
Japan and the United States are at logger-heads over currency policy with Washington saying Tokyo has no justification to intervene in the market to stem yen gains, given the currency’s moves remain « orderly ».In bilateral talks ahead of the second day of G7 talks in Sendai, Japan on Saturday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso that it was important to refrain from competitive currency devaluation.
« Secretary Lew underscored that the commitments made by the G-20 in Shanghai to use all policy tools to promote growth – fiscal policy, monetary policy and structural reforms – and to refrain from competitive devaluation and communicate closely have helped to contribute to confidence in the global economy in recent months, » according to a statement by the Treasury Department.
« He noted the importance of countries continuing to adhere to those commitments, » the statement said. As years of aggressive money printing stretch the limits of monetary policy, the G7 policy response to anaemic inflation and subdued growth has become increasingly splintered.Germany has shown no signs of responding to calls from Japan and the United States to boost fiscal spending.
Washington also warned Tokyo against relying too much on monetary policy with a senior U.S. Treasury official saying structural reforms are being put in place in Japan « but slowly. » The official also said Japan should ensure its fiscal policy does not hurt its economy, calling for either a delay in next year’s scheduled sales tax hike or fiscal stimulus to compensate for the drag on the economy.
With the once close-knit group divided on how much each country should boost fiscal spending, the G7 finance leaders will call for a mix of monetary, fiscal and structural policies to boost demand – but leave it to each country to decide its own policy priorities.
« I’m aware that there are countries that can deploy fiscal stimulus, while others cannot due to their own situations, » Aso said on Friday, suggesting that Tokyo was backing down from its earlier calls for joint G7 fiscal action.
While headwinds like weak emerging market demand persists, the G7 finance leaders appeared to have a slightly more optimistic view of the global economy as calm returns to financial markets.
« We agreed that the world economic environment is better than some feared a few months ago, » German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters after the first round of talks in Sendai, northeast Japan, on Friday. BREXIT WARNINGS Leaders at the meeting are also likely to warn that a British exit from the European Union, dubbed « Brexit », would be a global threat.
Britain’s finance minister, George Osborne, who supports the campaign to remain in the European Union, warned of the economic damage a Brexit would cause.
« Everyone here at the G7 in Japan is clear and that is that it would be bad for the British economy if we left the European Union, » Osborne told BBC in Sendai on Friday. In the second-day session on Saturday, the G7 finance leaders will discuss steps to address volatile capital flows, combat tax evasion and boost cyber-security.While no communique will be issued, Aso and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will brief reporters Saturday afternoon on the discussions.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar rises to third weekly gain; stocks jump Global equity markets rose on Friday as investors took in stride the possibility the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates in June, a view that helped U.S.bond yields to rise and lifted the dollar to a third straight week of gains.
U.S. home resales rose more than expected in April, suggesting the American economy has continued to gather pace during the second quarter. The data added to a growing perception that a rate hike next month or in July would not derail U.S. growth.Wall Street rose, following gains in Europe, with the S&P financial sector index rising 0.61 percent as recent comments from Fed officials suggested the possibility of a rate increase as early as June.
Information technology was the biggest gainer among the S&P sectors, rising 1.18 percent, on a higher-than-expected profit forecast from chip company Applied Materials, whose shares closed up 13.8 percent.
New York Fed President William Dudley said on Thursday the U.S. economy was strong enough to warrant a rate hike.
MSCI’s all-country world stock index rose 0.77 percent, and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading regional stocks closed up 1.26 percent to 1,326.45 points.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 65.54 points, or 0.38 percent, to 17,500.94. The S&P 500 gained 12.28 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,052.32 and the Nasdaq Composite added 57.03 points, or 1.21 percent, to 4,769.56.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.2 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent and Nasdaq climbed 1.1 percent.
The dollar traded close to two-month highs after it pushed past $1.12 per euro for the first time since March. Sterling gained 1.7 percent for the week as fears abated that Britain would vote to leave the European Union next month, a move referred to as « Brexit. » « The question for traders now is whether this Fed rate hike issue is a ‘risk-on’ or a ‘risk-off’ situation, » said Saxo Bank FX strategist John Hardy. « Our interpretation is that they want to do a June move, especially now Brexit chances seem to have dropped right off. » Not everyone believes a rate hike is imminent.
The probability of a June rate hike has jumped to 30 percent from around 4 percent at the start of the week, according to CME Group’s FedWatch site. Futures markets are predicting two rate hikes this year as opposed to just one as recently as last week.
« There is not enough data suggesting a rate hike is warranted, » said Rahul Shah, chief executive of Ideal Asset Management, adding that equity gains amounted to a relief rally.
The dollar index was slightly higher at 95.367 after reaching 95.502 overnight, a level last seen on March 29.
Against the yen, the dollar gained 0.16 percent to set another three-week high, at 110.58 yen. The euro rose 0.12 percent against the dollar at $1.1216.
Japan and the United States remain at loggerheads over exchange-rate policy with Washington dismissing Tokyo’s concerns that recent yen rises are excessive. Currency market stability is among topics financial leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies are discussing at a two-day gathering that kicked off Friday. A stronger dollar spurred investors to cash in on a second week of oil price gains, with the focus remaining on the market’s rebalancing as the global glut faced unplanned supply outages.
Global benchmark Brent crude prices closed down 9 cents to settle at $48.72 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 41 cents to settle at $47.75 a barrel. U.S. Treasury yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices, rose to their highest level in about two months.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1/32 in price, pushing their yield up to 1.8454 percent. Earlier yields hit 1.868 percent.Gold edged lower for the third straight session and notched its biggest weekly slide in nearly two months on growing expectations of a Fed rate hike. U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled down $1.90 at $1,252.90.
Wall St Week Ahead-Economic data keeps Fed in focus for stocks Economic data will garner most of the attention next week, with investors placing a heavy weight on a host of reports as they try and determine the likelihood of a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve at its June meeting.
Multiple gauges of the manufacturing sector will be released along with durable goods orders, a reading on consumer sentiment and the revised gross domestic product report for the first quarter. Signs of improvement in the data would likely heighten expectations of a rate hike and put equities under pressure.
« These are some important data points and my sense is the investment community is in a ‘good news is bad news’ frame of mind right now, » said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.
As recently as Monday, investors were nearly certain the central bank would hold off on an interest rate hike in June, as Fed funds futures rates showed only a 4-percent chance according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
But the minutes from the Fed’s April meeting, coupled with comments from New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley turned those expectations on their head, with expectations for a June hike standing at 30 percent on Friday.
« This week was really the week where the Fed pivoted, where the narrative changed, » said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.
« The narrative changed from cautious, very cautious to something more constructive in terms of the economy. » The increased expectations could bring about a rotation in stocks rather than a broad decline in the S&P 500, however. With financials among the prime beneficiaries of a rate hike, that could spark them to take a leadership position after struggling for most of the year. That rotation would likely make sectors such as utilities, telecoms and real estate investment trusts (REITs) vulnerable.
That underperformance has made banks extremely cheap, with valuations on the S&P 500 bank index last month at their lowest relative to the overall index in more than 10 years, according to DataStream.
The S&P bank index has jumped nearly 4 percent this week and was on track to snap a 3-week losing streak on the prospect of higher rates helping to boost banks’ earnings.
Sectors that have been attractive to investors in the low-rate environment, such as telecoms and utilities were both down more than 2 percent on the week, set for their worst week in five. « We will see more of the rotation, » said Scott Keifer, global investment specialist at JP Morgan Private Bank in Orange County, California. »It is just the market pricing in and taking the complacency out of the thought the Fed is not going to move, that June is live. »
Cyber thieves exploit banks’ faith in SWIFT transfer network Shortly after 7 p.m. on January 12, 2015, a message from a secure computer terminal at Banco del Austro (BDA) in Ecuador instructed San Francisco-based Wells Fargo to transfer money to bank accounts in Hong Kong.
Wells Fargo complied. Over 10 days, Wells approved a total of at least 12 transfers of BDA funds requested over the secure SWIFT system. The SWIFT network – which allows banks to process billions of dollars in transfers each day – is considered the backbone of international banking. In all, Wells Fargo transferred $12 million of BDA’s money to accounts across the globe.
Both banks now believe those funds were stolen by unidentified hackers, according to documents in a BDA lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo in New York this year.
BDA declined comment. Wells Fargo, which also initially declined comment on the lawsuit, said in a statement to Reuters on Friday that it « properly processed the wire instructions received via authenticated SWIFT messages » and was not responsible for BDA’s losses.
BDA is suing Wells Fargo on the basis that the U.S. bank should have flagged the transactions as suspicious.Wells Fargo has countered that security lapses in BDA’s own operations caused the Ecuadorean bank’s losses. Hackers had secured a BDA employee’s SWIFT logon credentials, Wells Fargo said in a February court filing.
SWIFT, an acronym for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is not a party to the lawsuit.
Neither bank reported the theft to SWIFT, which said it first learned about the cyber attack from a Reuters inquiry.
« We were not aware, » SWIFT said in a statement responding to Reuters inquiries. « We need to be informed by customers of such frauds if they relate to our products and services, so that we can inform and support the wider community. We have been in touch with the bank concerned to get more information, and are reminding customers of their obligations to share such information with us. » SWIFT says it requires customer to notify SWIFT of problems that can affect the « confidentiality, integrity, or availability of SWIFT service. » SWIFT, however, has no rule specifically requiring client banks to report hacking thefts. Banks often do not report such attacks out of concern they make the institution appear vulnerable, former SWIFT employees and cyber security experts told Reuters.
The Ecuador case illuminates a central problem with preventing such fraudulent transfers: Neither SWIFT nor its client banks have a full picture of the frequency or the details of cyber thefts made through the network, according to more than dozen former SWIFT executives, users and cyber security experts interviewed by Reuters.
The case – details of which have not been previously reported – raises new questions about the oversight of the SWIFT network and its communications with member banks about cyber thefts and risks. The network has faced intense scrutiny since cyber thieves stole $81 million in February from a Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
It’s unclear what SWIFT tells its member banks when it does find out about cyber thefts, which are typically first discovered by the bank that has been defrauded. SWIFT spokeswoman Natasha de Ter?n said that the organization « was transparent with its users » but declined to elaborate. SWIFT declined to answer specific questions about its policies for disclosing breaches.
On Friday, following the publication of this Reuters story, SWIFT urged all of its users to notify the network of cyber attacks.
« It is essential that you share critical security information related to SWIFT with us, » SWIFT said in a communication to users.
Reuters was unable to determine the number or frequency of cyber attacks involving the SWIFT system, or how often the banks report them to SWIFT officials.
The lack of disclosure may foster overconfidence in SWIFT network security by banks, which routinely approve transfer requests made through the messaging network without additional verification, former SWIFT employees and cyber security experts said.
The criminals behind such heists are exploiting banks’ willingness to approve SWIFT requests at face value, rather than making additional manual or automated checks, said John Doyle, who held a variety of senior roles at SWIFT between 1980 and 2005.
« SWIFT doesn’t replace prudent banking practice » he said, noting that banks should verify the authenticity of withdrawal or transfer requests, as they would for money transfers outside the SWIFT system.
SWIFT commits to checking the codes on messages sent into its system, to ensure the message has originated from a client’s terminal, and to send it to the intended recipient quickly and securely, former SWIFT executives and cyber security experts said. But once cyber-thieves obtain legitimate codes and credentials, they said, SWIFT has no way of knowing they are not the true account holders.
The Bank for International Settlements, a trade body for central banks, said in a November report that increased information sharing on cyber attacks is crucial to helping financial institutions manage the risk.
« The more they share the better, » said Leo Taddeo, chief security officer at Cryptzone and a former special agent in charge with the FBI’s cyber crime division in New York.
SYSTEMIC RISK SWIFT, a cooperative owned and governed by representatives of the banks it serves, was founded in 1973 and operates a secure messaging network that has been considered reliable for four decades. But recent attacks involving the Belgium-based cooperative have underscored how the network’s central role in global finance also presents systemic risk.
SWIFT is not regulated, but a group of ten central banks from developed nations, led by the National Bank of Belgium, oversee the organization. Among its stated guidelines is a requirement to provide clients with enough information to enable them « to manage adequately the risks related to their use of SWIFT. » However, some former SWIFT employees said that the cooperative struggles to keep banks informed on risks of cyber fraud because of a lack of cooperation from the banks themselves. SWIFT’s 25-member board of directors is filled with representatives of larger banks.
« The banks are not going to tell us too much, » said Doyle, the former SWIFT executive. « They wouldn’t like to destabilize confidence in their institution. » Banks also fear notifying SWIFT or law enforcement of security breaches because that could lead to regulatory investigations that highlight failures of risk management or compliance that could embarrass top managers, said Hugh Cumberland, a former SWIFT marketing executive who is now a senior associate with cyber security firm Post-Quantum.
Cases of unauthorized money transfers rarely become public, in part because disagreements are usually settled bilaterally or through arbitration, which is typically private, said Salvatore Scanio, a lawyer at Washington, D.C.-based Ludwig & Robinson.
Scanio said he consulted on a dispute involving millions of dollars of stolen funds and the sending of fraudulent SWIFT messages similar to the BDA attack. He declined to name the parties or provide other details.
Theoretically, SWIFT could require its customers, mainly banks, to inform it of any attacks – given that no bank could risk the threat of exclusion from the network, said Lieven Lambrecht, the head of human resources at SWIFT for a year-and-a-half through May 2015. But such a rule would require the agreement of its board, which is mainly made up of senior executives from the back office divisions of the largest western banks, who would be unlikely to approve such a policy, Lambrecht said.
FIGHT OVER LIABILITY This week, Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank said its SWIFT account, too, was used in an attempted hack last year. That effort failed, but it is another sign that cyber-criminals are increasingly targeting the messaging network.
In the Ecuadorean case, Wells Fargo denies any liability for the fraudulent transfers from BDA accounts. Wells Fargo said in court records that it did not verify the authenticity of the BDA transfer requests because they came through SWIFT, which Wells called « among the most widely used and secure » systems for money transfers. BDA is seeking recovery of the money, plus interest. Wells Fargo is attempting to have the case thrown out.
New York-based Citibank also transferred $1.8 million in response to fraudulent requests made through BDA’s SWIFT terminal, according to the BDA lawsuit against Wells Fargo.
Citibank repaid the $1.8 million to BDA, according to a BDA court filing in April. Citibank declined to comment.For its part, Wells Fargo refunded to BDA $958,700 out of the $1,486,230 it transferred to an account in the name of a Jose Mariano Castillo at Wells Fargo in Los Angeles, according to the lawsuit. Reuters could not locate Castillo or verify his existence.
ANATOMY OF A CYBER HEIST The BDA-Wells Fargo case is unusual in that one bank took its correspondent bank to court, thus making the details public, said Scanio, the Washington attorney.BDA acknowledged in a January court filing that it took more than a week after the first fraudulent transfer request for BDA to discover the missing money.After obtaining a BDA employee’s SWIFT logon, the thieves then fished out previously canceled or rejected payment requests that remained in BDA’s SWIFT outbox.
They then altered the amounts and destinations on the transfer requests and reissued them, both banks said in filings. While Wells Fargo has claimed in court filings that failures of security at BDA are to blame for the breach, BDA has alleged that Wells could easily have spotted and rejected the unusual transfers. BDA noted that the payment requests were made outside of its normal business hours and involved unusually large amounts.
The BDA theft and others underscore the need for banks on both sides of such transactions – often for massive sums – to rely less on SWIFT for security and strengthen their own verification protocols, Cumberland said. »This image of the SWIFT network and the surrounding ecosystem being secure and impenetrable has encouraged complacency, » he said.
The very idea of a President Trump scares some, bolsters others in Asia Donald Trump’s « isolationist » foreign policy pronouncements are feeding insecurity in some Asian nations fearful of China’s growing power, and risk emboldening nationalists and authoritarians in the region.
The real estate developer, who is very close to securing the Republican nomination for November’s presidential election, has with undiplomatic abandon challenged much of the status quo in U.S.-Asia relations. Overall, his comments have sounded like a death knell for the « pivot to Asia » strategy adopted by President Barack Obama five years ago.
Trump has said U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea should pay more towards their defence, warned he could withdraw U.S.
troops from bases in Japan, and mulled whether Japan and South Korea should have their own nuclear arms. This week he told Reuters he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which would represent a major shift in U.S. policy.
In a television interview on Friday, Trump told MSNBC that while he was open to talks, he « would never go to North Korea. » Trump has also threatened to rein in China’s big trade surplus with the United States, saying he will threaten to impose heavy duties on Chinese goods. And Trump says he will rip up and then renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact agreed to by the U.S., Japan, and 10 other countries in February.
Furthermore, Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States risks undermining moderate leaders in Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
« If he becomes president and adopts his own version of foreign policy, the U.S. will cease to be a Pacific power.That’s the end result, » said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat, who served in both Beijing and Baghdad.
« It’s not that we would adopt ‘Japan First,’ but if the U.S.
leaves, there will be a vacuum and China will try to fill it, » said Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. « It’s a survival issue for all allies of the United States. » Trump could, of course, lose the election to the likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, who is well known by many Asia policymakers. And if he is elected he could act much differently in office. But Asian diplomats and policy advisers say that initial impressions count.Trump’s idea of making Japan and South Korea pay up rather than enjoy a cheaper ride under the U.S. security umbrella sent shudders through Tokyo and Seoul.
Trump reiterated his stance on Friday. « They have a lot of money, both of those nations, » he told MSNBC, pointing to Japan’s auto sales and South Korea’s electronics industry. « We have to get reimbursed. » In addition, his comments about the possibility of a local nuclear deterrent fanned fears among Asian diplomats that the world could become an even more dangerous place.
« It is here that Trump is most scary, » Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in New Delhi, though he also noted it may be « just election rhetoric..
Japan’s nationalist-led government has already boosted defence spending and has reinterpreted its pacifist constitution to allow its military to come to the aid of allies under attack even if Japan itself if not attacked, a major shift in Japan’s post-war security stance.
« His position is causing anxiety, especially in East Asia, » said a senior lawmaker in Japan’s ruling coalition. « It is really hard to comprehend because conservatives have supported a stronger military presence and more engagement. » FLASHPOINT Mansingh said he expects China to test the foreign policy resolve of whoever occupies the White House next, and the South China Sea looms as one of the most likely flashpoints.
Tensions over China’s land-building and installations on islets in the disputed waters flared on Tuesday, when two Chinese warplanes carried out what the Pentagon called an « unsafe » intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft.
« They’re building a massive fortress in the South China Sea.They’re not supposed to be doing that, » Trump told Reuters, without saying what he would do about it.
At least, according to Mansingh, China’s leaders and Trump shared the mentality of dealmakers, which could help settle diplomatic wrangles before they get out of hand. Jia Qingguo, an adviser to China’s government on foreign affairs, said Trump sounds like an « isolationist » who doesn’t want the United States to become too active internationally.
« So, he doesn’t sound that aggressive, » said Jia, the dean of the School of International Relations at China’s elite Peking University. « Chinese tend to think that too much so-called internationalism on the part of the U.S. is not that good. » A senior Japanese government official said Washington could lose influence in Asia if there was any perception it was softening its stance on issues like the South China Sea.
« And it would be very difficult to get it back, » he warned. Mansingh says those fears are overblown as the United States’ self-interest lay in protecting access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
« What would American withdrawal mean? Does it want to hand over the affairs of the world to China? Would that serve anybody’s interest? I don’t think so. » DEALBREAKER There are also fears that the TPP could unravel, or become worth a lot less to Asian partners, should Trump renegotiate the pact, as he has said he wants to do.
The deal has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, but Obama has warned that delay could allow China to steal a march through its own proposed regional trade deal with 15 other nations.
« I think it’s hard to imagine that TPP would survive a Trump presidency, » said a top trade official in a major country in the region, who declined to be more closely identified.
« ‘Less intervention’ would be a small benefit compared to the massive damage to the world from a USA that becomes more isolationist and more crassly commercial under Trump, » he said.
The lack of priority Trump appears to give to issues that don’t serve his « America first » agenda could mean he’ll soft-pedal on human rights and democratic values, some critics said. That would come at a time when generals are running Thailand, a ‘strong man’ has just been elected as president of the Philippines, and Malaysia’s prime minister has silenced independent media.
« Let’s hope that someone on his team realizes that respect for human rights must be a core U.S. foreign policy value and not just a reality show line, » said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. On the other hand, Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Thailand’s defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwon, expressed confidence that Trump wouldn’t apply pressure to countries like his. »All in all, if Trump arrives, the chances of stronger ties will be good because he would want allies, » said Panitan.
Trump rallies gun owners with fiery anti-Clinton speech Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump assured gun owners on Friday he would protect their constitutional right to bear arms and eliminate gun-free zones if elected, accusing Democrat Hillary Clinton of wanting to weaken gun rights.
Trump, who will almost certainly be the Republican presidential nominee, picked up the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, a politically powerful lobbying group which claims more than 4 million members. Trump’s remarks at the NRA’s national convention in Louisville, Kentucky, were not a surprise, but they could solidify his status among conservatives who see protecting the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment as a top priority.
Trump also planned to meet on Monday with U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, a source close to the Trump campaign said.The two are expected to consult on foreign policy. The source said Corker remains on Trump’s list of potential vice presidential running mates.
Clinton, who is close to clinching the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has vowed to take on the gun lobby and expand gun control measures to include comprehensive background checks for gun buyers, including at open-air gun shows and online.
Trump, who is trying to unite the Republican Party behind him after a brutal primary battle, accused Clinton, a former secretary of state to President Barack Obama, of wanting to end the 2nd Amendment, which says in part that the people’s right to keep and bear arms « shall not be infringed. » « Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment, not change it; she wants to abolish it, » Trump said.
Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Maya Harris said Trump is peddling falsehoods and denounced « Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories. » She said Clinton believes there are « common-sense steps we can take at the federal level to keep guns out of the hands of criminals » while protecting the Second Amendment.
Trump told the NRA he would eliminate gun-free zones imposed in some areas, noting that the 2015 shooting deaths of four U.S.Marines at an armed forces recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, took place in a gun-free zone.
« The Second Amendment is on the ballot in November, » he said. « The only way to save our Second Amendment is to vote for a person you know: Donald Trump. » The NRA’s convention took place on the same day that a man brandished a gun at a checkpoint near the White House in Washington and was shot and wounded by a law enforcement officer.
The New York billionaire’s NRA speech was another step in his drive to make more conservatives comfortable with his candidacy. Earlier this week, he released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees who are conservative jurists, a step well-received on the right.
Many conservatives, who had backed other Republican candidates in the 2016 race, worry that Trump is a closet liberal on many issues. But Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said it was time for them to get over their qualms about the 69-year-old candidate.
« If your preferred candidate is out of the race, it’s time to get over it, » Cox told the NRA audience. « Are there valid arguments in favor of some over others? Sure. Will any of it matter if Hillary wins in November? Not one bit. » In another step toward trying to unify the party, Cox has invited members of Congress to a « small roundtable discussion » with one of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club near the U.S. Capitol, a copy of the invitation said.
Tortoise in a baby stroller a novelty even for New Yorkers New York City is filled with oddities that can surprise even the most die-hard New Yorkers and when Henry the tortoise turned up in a stroller in Central Park this week for his daily outing it turned more than a few heads.
The 17 pound (7.7 kg) sulcata tortoise is the pet of 24-year-old Amanda Green who lives in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He led a reclusive existence until Green took to Craigslist to advertise for a tortoise walker. New Yorkers are accustomed to dog walkers but no so much tortoise walkers, so Green expected only a few responses.Instead, the listing went viral and hundreds of people from all over the world applied for the $10-an-hour job.
« Just like a person who has a dog would hire a dog walker, I figured why not a tortoise walker? » Green said in an interview with Reuters TV. « It took on a life of its own … I heard from about 500, » said Green, a copywriter for a style and beauty website.The job went to Amalia McCallister, who has experience from having worked in a pet store.
« You honestly do have to keep your eye on him, » McCallister said, describing the job as fun and not too taxing. « I could, maybe, read a book, but you’ve got to make sure he doesn’t eat the wrong thing. » Sulcata tortoises are native to north central Africa but they adapt well to different environments. Land-dwelling reptiles with a shell, they are mainly herbivores. Henry, who is taken to the park by stroller and then allowed to roam free, particularly likes dandelions and grass.
He has amassed an online fanbase with more than 5,000 Instagram followers and nearly 300 likes on Facebook for his profile: « The Notortoise BIG ». The profile’s name is a play on the stage name used by the late rapper Christopher Wallace, who called himself Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G.
Green adopted Henry a couple of years ago from a woman who was unable to manage her growing family and the tortoise. She said Henry is friendly and curious but needs lots of attention. Green said she knows that Henry will one day outgrow her apartment. Male sulcata tortoises can reach a length of more than 30 inches (76 cm) and tip the scales at up to 200 pounds (90 kg). »Am I going to somehow get a backyard in New York City? » Green asked. « These animals do need exercise so it is really great that I have a walker now. »
From rape to disasters, climate change a threat to women – funders Carla Lopez remembers the first time she heard a suggestion that climate change was a factor leading to the rape of young girls. « I was in Santa Maria Xalapan of Guatemala when a group of women said young girls were being kidnapped and raped because there was a water crisis. It was a revelation, » said the executive director of the Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres, a women’s fund based in Central America.
In the indigenous Xinca society of Xalapan, men often kidnap and rape young girls before marrying them, Lopez said, and for about a decade, the local women’s group had been campaigning to end this trend.
But in the last two years, groundwater was becoming scarce, because of weather changes and increased mining in the region.
As women and girls had to walk further to fetch water, the number of kidnappings and rapes more than doubled over that period, local women said.
« The group of young women came to us and said that they were going to campaign for women’s and girls’ access to water, because that was the main reason behind the rise in rapes and kidnapping. So we provided them a grant of $15,000 that was usually reserved for climate projects, » said Lopez, who spoke at this week’s Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen, which for the first time had a strong focus on climate change issues this year.
Globally, a growing number of women’s organisations are beginning to draw connections to climate change in their work, said Juliana Valez of the Women’s Environment and Development Oraganization (WEDO), a global network of over 100 women’s organisations working on climate change and women’s issues.
That is both because organisations increasingly see how issues such as worsening disasters, increasing migration or lack of water disproportionately affect women, and because many organisations have their eye on a share of a promised $100 billion a year in international funding to address climate change by 2020, experts said.
LOOKING AT THE ROOT CAUSES In the past two to three years, Valez said, about a quarter of their partners have begun to address climate change in their work, including some large organisations such as the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women in Malaysia, Population Action Integration in Washington and the Fondacion Cayetano Heredia, a health research organisation in Peru.
« From security issues such as rape, beating and molestation to health issues such as miscarriages and hemorrhage or early deaths of mothers, women organisations are beginning to look more at the root cause and finding climate change as the root cause, or a cause worsening the situation, » she said.
That has led to a growing number of funding organisations giving cash not just to address threats to women, but also to focus on the climate change issues underlying them.
But getting climate cash for women’s issues- and vice versa – isn’t always easy, said Laura Garcia of the Sociedad Mexicana pro Derechos de la Mujer (SEMILLAS), one of the organisations which gives such linked-up grants.
« We have a simple but strict criterion: you must have project with a human rights approach, a clear gender perspective, that has women at the lead and can lead to gender equality. But, most of the proposals that we receive fail to incorporate all of these, » said Garcia, of the Mexico-based group.
Women’s concerns also are getting a limited focus in efforts to curb climate change, experts said. Statistics from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) suggest that of the total project proposals on curbing climate change submitted to the GEF in 2014, only 18 percent addressed gender issues.
Lopez doesn’t think the effort to link up threats to women and threats to the climate is simply an « attempt to grab the money » that is becoming available to deal with climate change. Women’s organisations « are shifting to climate change because they see the reason as genuine, not because that is where the money is », she said.
MAKING THE LINK The problem facing many women’s groups in securing funding, she said, is that many do not know how to describe clearly the climate connection to their project – even though the links are there.
Efforts to build the capacity of women’s groups to seek climate finance will be important, Lopez and Garcia said. They urged the international Green Climate Fund – which is expected to handle a large share of the coming flow of climate cash – to work closely with regional « green » grant giving organisations. « Local funders have the access to the local organisations, and understand their needs, their vulnerabilities, and a framework for releasing the finances. So a partnership with them can not only be logical, but also beneficial to all, » Garcia said.
U.S. targets spying threat on campus with proposed research clampdown Leading U.S. universities are pushing back against a proposed State Department rule that would bar foreign students from more research projects and classes involving information seen as vital to national security.
The proposal by the administration of President Barack Obama reflects growing worries in Washington over a rise in intellectual property theft from foreign adversaries such as China.
Research related to defense technology such as munitions, nuclear engineering and satellite technology would be particularly affected by the rule, which is still in the proposal process and has not been widely reported.
Defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin regularly sponsor university research, but did not respond to requests for comment.
The new rule, which largely applies to company-sponsored research, threatens to shrink the pool of research opportunities available for U.S. colleges, which have grown strongly in popularity among high-paying foreign students in recent years.
Some top U.S. schools do not accept any research grants that restrict participation by foreign citizens because it runs counter to their policies of academic freedom and non-discrimination.
In a letter to the State Department, Stanford University said it joined The Association of American Universities (AAU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania in criticizing the rule, citing « disastrous consequences. » The AAU represents 62 leading research institutions, including Harvard, Duke University, and the University of Chicago.
The universities say the rule would tip the balance too far in favor of national security against academic freedom.
« We wouldn’t be able to perform the same basic foundational research that we do, » said Stanford’s director of export compliance Steve Eisner. « Stanford has a policy of conducting research openly regardless of citizenship. We’re not going to tell our Chinese students that they can’t participate. » No current cases of industrial espionage involve university research, though government officials told Reuters they suspect university faculty are violating loosely defined research rules.
A 2011 FBI report said « foreign adversaries and competitors take advantage » of the openness of information on college campuses and a small percentage of students, researchers and foreign professors are « working at the behest of another government. » There were just under 1 million foreign students at U.S. colleges in the 2014-2015 school year, 31 percent of whom were Chinese, according to the Institute of International Education.That has grown from fewer than 100,000 in the 1960s when the United States began regulating their access to research.
In 2015, the number of intellectual property cases investigated by the FBI rose 53 percent from the previous year.The FBI says China is the main culprit. It has accused Chinese nationals of attempting to export technology from the United States, including genetically modified corn seed and sensitive military information stored on Boeing computers.
The Department of Justice said in a statement that « we know that some foreign spies and criminals target students and faculty alike to steal valuable technology and intellectual property. » It added it was working with universities and laboratories to raise awareness of the threat.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hong Lei, said the United States should be improving cooperation with China instead of adding restrictions on foreign students. « China’s scientific and technological developments have been achieved through the hard struggle of the Chinese people, » Lei said at a ministry briefing on Thursday.
SHRINKING RESEARCH CHOICES The proposed rule comes as universities face shrinking federal funding for research, forcing many to rely more on industry-sponsored projects.
State Department officials told Reuters they are aware of universities’ opposition to the rule, but have received no complaints or advice from companies that sponsor university research.
Experts in counterterrorism and counter nuclear proliferation told the State Department tighter restrictions on research access are necessary because universities are « a soft target, » said Tony Dearth, director of defense trade controls licensing at the State Department.
In the first case of its kind, University of Tennessee electrical engineering professor John Reese Roth was convicted in 2008 of exporting « defense articles » without a license, and of wire fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to four years.
Roth used foreign students in research on plasma-based flight-control devices for drone aircraft under a U.S. Air Force contract. He let two foreign students illegally gain access to sensitive information and export it to China, said the FBI.
The proposed rule would expand the definition of research classified as « technical » to any project that undergoes a pre-publication review by a private sponsor. Unlike less-sensitive « fundamental » research, technical research is regulated in a variety of ways including a requirement that foreign students must apply for a license. Students from China, Iran and North Korea are usually denied licenses, said university officials.
The State Department argues that if a company wants to take a second look at research because it may be sensitive to its economic interests, foreign student involvement should be regulated.
Stanford told the State Department in a public letter that the new rule would affect a broad portion of industry-backed research because universities « routinely » allow sponsors to review results for up to 90 days.
Colleges that object to the government’s foreign-student restrictions have long avoided technical research and focused solely on projects classed as fundamental. The new rule would force them to either loosen their policies or give up defense-related research.
Schools with fundamental research-only policies are already in the minority. A Reuters survey of the top 35 research universities, ranked by R&D expenditures, found only 11 were still adhering to such a position.
Federal funding for research still dwarfs business funding, but the two are trending in opposite directions.
Over 2011-2014, federal funds for university research fell to $37.9 billion from $40.8 billion, according to the National Science Foundation. Over the same period, industry-sponsored university research grew to $5.9 billion from $4.9 billion. « As federal funds have become scarcer and the competition has increased, I think we see a lot of universities expanding their partnerships with industry, » said Bob Hardy, director of intellectual property management at the Council on Government Relations, an association of research universities.
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)